Thats certainly true, but it doesnt mean climbing cant benefit from a little modern technology. Thats what two Finnish researchers had in mind when they came up with the concept for a climbing wall boosted by augmented reality. By combining a projector, a motion-tracking camera, and 3D game-building software, they were able to illuminate a climbing wall to illustrate the ideal route or provide hints to help climbers choose the best option for their next move. <\/p>\n
Bouldering, as you might guess, can be done outdoors on actual boulders, but its commonly practiced in climbing gyms where climbers scramble from hold to hold above a padded landing area without a safety rope. The sport is heavily social, as people work together to solve a particular problem and climb a route successfully. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Encouraging such collaboration was one goal of the augmented wall project, said Dr. Raine Kajastila, a post-doctoral researcher at Aalto Universitys Department of Media Technology in Finland, an avid climber for for nearly 15 years. <\/p>\n
Anyone can make a route and share it with others who can easily try them even on a different day, Kajastila said. The social contact is not restricted to the same time and place. <\/p>\n
Kajastila and Perttu Hmlinen, a professor of computer games at Aalto, built a 13-foot by 8-foot climbing wall in their lab to test their idea. One concept used projectors to show routes up the wall, which appeared as a series of lines with circles around preferred holds. In another prototype, the program captured the climbers movement with an instant replay capability. There was even a built-in game that required climbers to avoid an animated chainsaw chasing them around the wall. <\/p>\n
Whether used for fun or training, Hmlinen said the extra information provided by the computer has been shown in several studies to accelerate learning a new skill. <\/p>\n
Computer-generated feedback can be faster and more accurate than training with a video camera or even receiving feedback from an instructor, he said. It allows a student to do more repetitions and evaluations of a skill in a shorter time. <\/p>\n
The Finnish team isnt the first to come up with an interactive climbing wall; there are commercial models available today with holds that light up to guide climbers. But Kajastila said their system, which would work with any existing wall, focuses on tracking a climbers entire body to illustrate where a climb went well and where someone might have gotten into trouble before a fall. <\/p>\n
There are others working on high-tech training aids. Climbax is a pair of wristbands that collect data on your movements as you climb and upload it to an online portal. The company has gone through a Kickstarter campaign and is seeking additional funding. BouldAR is an augmented reality concept from a set of German researchers that would incorporate a smartphone as a way of sharing routes and challenging friends to competitions. <\/p>\n
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An Augmented-Reality Climbing Wall That Guides Your Ascent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thats certainly true, but it doesnt mean climbing cant benefit from a little modern technology. Thats what two Finnish researchers had in mind when they came up with the concept for a climbing wall boosted by augmented reality. Continue reading